


Homesickness

by Unuora



Category: Star Stealing Prince
Genre: Astra is the brains of this operation, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Not Canon Compliant, Other, and Hiante gets a body
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-15 06:53:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29185077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unuora/pseuds/Unuora
Summary: After leaving Sabine they all have some adjustments to make.
Relationships: Astra & Erio & Snowe & Hiante (Star Stealing Prince), Erio/Snowe/Astra (Star Stealing Prince)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	Homesickness

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, this is niche, lol. If anyone is here for my gomens stuff I’ll be back to that soon I just needed to get this out of my system. 
> 
> I started playing SSP in 2013 and it took me damn near seven years to get my ass in gear and write this. It was definitely not meant to be _seven thousand words_ but here we are. Hard work just to bring the Astra/Snowe/Erio tag to life.
> 
> I hope you enjoy. I am sure there are a ton of inaccuracies, it's been a while since I played the game.

“When do you think they’ll figure it out?” Astra’s been flipping through a book disinterestedly for a while now, but she’s long since tired of it. All she’s managed to do in the last few minutes is stare moodily at the unchanging blocks of text. It’s only natural that her focus began to drift inevitably up to where Erio and Snowe were hunched together over a spell book Vera had lent them.

“Hm,” Hiante says. His gaze follows Astra’s and he considers the pair, deep in argument. “Are you saying...?”

“Hah,” Astra startles with a laugh, and fumbles her pen to the table before she can drop it. “Hiante, come on. You can’t say you haven’t noticed!”

“Ah,” Hiante says. He looks at Erio and Snowe. He looks at Astra’s lopsided, bewildered grin. He looks back at Erio and Snowe; they’re close enough that their shoulders are touching. Even amidst their heated conversation Erio’s relaxed and open. He hasn’t crossed his arms or made any motion to move away. When he makes an enthusiastic gesture at the text he doesn’t let it jar their shoulders apart. “It’s not my place to intrude,” Hiante settles upon.

“Oh, whatever,” Astra says with a smile. “I know you’re protective of us both but give Snowe a chance.”

“I didn’t say I... disapproved,” Hiante says slowly. Snowe is smiling softly. When Hiante checks so is Astra. If her expression could be penned with one word it would be longing.

“Good,” Astra says. She turns that expression of blinding love onto Hiante. Even after all these years it’s enough to make something like his heart clench. She deserves something happy after all this. They all do. They’ve been through so much. “He’s a good one. I promise, Hiante.”

“I’ve never doubted you, princess,” Hiante says.

Astra barks out a laugh. “We both know that isn’t true, but thank you.”

Any day now Hiante is going to give her a big talk about dating. She can feel it. Maybe she should begrudge this being as old as she is, but the feeling doesn’t come. She’s too busy watching Snowe stealthily stick pieces of the labels they’re peeling off of old medicine jars onto the back of Erio’s sleeve. He doesn’t notice even with three, four, five additions, until Snowe is just a hair too slow and Erio shoves a cackling Snowe to the ground.

Hiante’s been a silent surveyor to all their newfound antics. She can practically feel him thinking. After all these years she’s an expert in his tells. Hiante will tilt his head a bit when he wants to be smiling. The orientation of his shoulders can explain whether he’s irritated or joking. Even without lungs Hiante’s ribs expand with his breathing, and when it goes slow and calm Astra knows he’s well and truly relaxed. Hiante is a tough case, but one that Astra had most of her life to study. When a thought catches him up she’s the first to know.

She doesn’t need to guess what he thinks now.

She never had the opportunity to do the things normal teenagers did while stuck in the tower, but that meant that no matter how much he wanted to Hiante’s role as a guardian was limited. But now there’s nothing stopping them from doing anything they want. Astra can lean back her head and laugh at Snowe and Erio squabbling. For the first time in her life she’s allowed to live. She catches Hiante’s knowing eye from across the room and grins.

After a lifetime in the tower it’s only natural that once she left she would find it hard to adjust. It’s overwhelming at first, the amount of sights and smells and things to do. Once Snowe had busied himself with helping Richard and Vera prepare a home for their child Astra had found herself immobilized with possibilities. Whereas Erio didn’t hesitate in making the first stumbling steps towards opening an apothecary shop for himself, Astra felt unmoored in the new land.

The stars were ever so slightly different here. She doesn’t need to take guidance from them any longer, but for the longest time they were all she had. And now…

Hiante sits with her in the empty afternoons where she feels too overwhelmed to venture into town and too tired to wander elsewhere. Together they’ll sit in the shade, watching blotchy clouds inch their way across the sky. The sun is so warm here. There are days where she feels like she could lie here forever, trying to soak it up, as if she could warm the version of her still trapped in her tower.

“Do you feel that?” Astra asks, gesturing vaguely. Hiante gives her a blank expression that nearly makes her crack a smile.

“What?”

“The sun,” she says. “Can you feel it? The warmth?” She brushes a hand against Hiante’s arm. She knows well enough that he can feel her touch, in some sense, at least enough to react when she does. Back in the tower she shied away from discussing his lack of a body too often. Not that she hadn’t wanted to, but because it was another cage built to keep him prisoner. In an unspoken decree the three of them never spoke of the things lost to them. It was easier to continue on that way.

“Ah, sort of,” he says. He sticks out his arms out of the shade, as if examining himself. “I know it is warm, but I don’t think I feel it the same way as you do.”

“Hm,” Astra says. The paleness of bone is so bright in the sun it is nearly reflective. In the direct midday sunlight Hiante is illuminated like a star. In a way she thinks this describes him well since they left Sabine. Even without a body, his contentedness shines so bright it’s hard to look at. “I wish we could find a way to get you a body. Would you want that? If we could, of course.”

Hiante gives Astra a hard look. “Do not do anything foolish for my sake,” he warns.

“No,” she says. She tries to smile but it feels weak. “I just—I get to live a whole new life away from the tower. Everything holding us back is gone. Erio could head home tomorrow if he wanted, but you—don’t you want something more?”

“I’ve been given a second life and you want to give me a third,” he says with a wry grin. “Astra, this _is_ my something more.”

She can’t help but frown at that. “Come on. You’ve spent years trapped in a tower as a skeleton. That can’t be what you want.”

“I got the chance to raise the most wonderful child,” he says gently. “You don’t need to give me anything more than that.”

“Oh, please,” Astra laughs but she won’t deny how Hiante’s tender words touch her. “I still want to try. Would you let me— if I found a way that was safe would you let me?”

“If you truly want to,” Hiante sighs. “I hope you know you are not getting rid of me that easily, though. Even with a body I’ll still be your protector, and if Snowe ever steps out of line—“

That’s all it takes for Astra to collapse into peals of laughter.

Even with Hiante by her side the first couple months are tough. She finds the people in the marketplace confusing and demanding. Busy streets are loud and cacophonous. When she tries to sleep at night the noises are different, and she’s always left listening for the delicate silence of the snowy wilderness of Sabine.

No matter how much she tries to ignore it she is a foreigner here. It is never more obvious than when she falls ill once, and then again, and then thrice over. She had spent her life isolated with a skeleton and a demon. There is not a doctor in the city that is surprised that she is struck down by the tempered diseases of civilization, but all they can do is prescribe bed rest and for visitors to stay to a minimum.

It’s immediately obvious how miserable this makes Snowe. It’s not as if she could’ve stayed in her tower forever even if she wanted to, but at the end of the day it was Snowe who brought her to new lands. Astra knows he feels guilty; once when she was supposed to be sleeping she overheard Erio and Snowe talking in the room over. She tried to stifle her coughing and listened to the muffled lull of their voices.

“Maybe we should leave for somewhere less crowded,” Snowe says. “She can’t keep getting sick like this, what will—“

“I don’t think that’s your choice to make,” Erio says, not unkindly. “You know as well as I do that Astra will do what she likes. She would never ask us to leave, and she would never leave us.”

“Yes, I know,” Snowe says. “But the sicknesses—“

“Apothecary, remember?” Erio says. “I’m sure I can figure out something to help. Give me some time to work with the local doctors and I’ll have something to protect her.”

“Alright,” Snowe says, but the tone of his voice sounds unsure.

Erio snorts. “Somehow she survived years without your endless fretting, you know,” he says. “She’ll be fine, Snowe.”

“I know,” he says, “thank you.”

Soon their voices fade as they move to further rooms, but the warm affection they left behind lingers.

Seeing Astra laid out in bed feels wrong to Erio. Her whole life she’s been a whirlwind of excitement from dawn till dusk, not a moment wasted from when he found himself in her tower. The times she fell ill as a child were few and far in between; who was to get her sick between a demon and a skeleton? It is as if the sicknesses are making up for lost time now. Astra drifts in and out of consciousness in a sweaty haze most days, fretful and warm to the touch.

Demons don’t get sick. At least not in the same way humans do. Watching Astra writhe beneath her fever’s grip sends fear down Erio’s spine. Between him and Snowe it’s up to Hiante to drag them away for meals and sleep.

“She’s going to be fine, Erio,” Hiante says after fielding the brief yet repetitive argument they have about leaving Astra’s bedside. “The doctors said so. You said so. She’s strong, and she will not be happy if you two are half dead by the time she awakens.”

“Yes,” Erio says. He means to say more but the words get caught up in his throat somehow. He had been thinking of every time he had healed Astra after battle, but all he keeps thinking of is the blank hollowness he senses from her since they left Sabine.

“If you want to talk about it…” Hiante says hesitantly. It’s what makes Erio realize he’s left the silence to drag too long.

“Do you think she wishes we never left Sabine?”

A pause. “Do you?”

“I don’t know,” Erio says, waving an aggravated hand. “But she seems to hate it here. She’s clearly unhappy, and now it’s trying to _kill her_.”

“We all went through a lot,” Hiante says gently. “It’s normal to have to adjust after something—“

“What about you? Or Snowe? The both of you seem to be doing just fine now that we’re here, but it was our job to protect _Astra_ , Hiante.”

“We did. She’s got more options for her life than she’s ever had before, and we need to respect the time it takes for her to figure out her own path.”

That quiets Erio. His mouth snaps shut with a click. 

“Besides,” Hiante says. “I doubt you would find Snowe as well adjusted as you think he is. He is remarkable in his capacity to persevere, but I wonder if you asked you’d find some familiar internal struggles.”

“Rgh,” Erio growls. “Alright, alright, enough of that. Now get out of my head.”

Hiante puts up his hands innocently. “I swear none of that was taken from the source. Perhaps I just know you better than you think I do.”

“Just keep it to yourself,” Erio says, trying for stern and missing half a note. “Don’t tell Astra.”

“I know Astra is happy here because she is surrounded by people who love her,” Hiante says, smiling gently. “Keep that in mind.”

“How are you doing?” Erio asks, slipping into Astra’s room with practiced silence. He would hate to wake Snowe after he finally got to sleep.

Astra smiles at him, sleepy and comfortable. “I’m fine, Erio,” she says. She’s sitting up in bed, hair unpinned for sleep, and the softness of her makes Erio want to believe it. Her fever had broken and her health had rapidly improved, but Erio still worried. He worried about her mind as well as her body.

“You can always tell me if you’re not,” Erio says. He keeps his distance from the bed, hovering a few feet away. He tries to make it look casual by leaning against the dresser but he catches the little twinge in Astra’s expression.

“Oh, come here,” Astra says, patting the blanket. There’s plenty of space for Erio to sit but he hesitates nonetheless. “I miss you, you know.”

“Miss me?” He knows he’ll upset Astra if he keeps resisting so he obligingly climbs into the bed. “I haven’t left your side yet.”

“It’s been a really weird couple months,” she says. The calculated distance Erio put between them is ruined by her nudging a foot against his hip. “It used to be just you me and Hiante in that castle all alone. And now our lives have gotten a lot bigger.”

“Ah,” Erio says, trying not to let his voice catch too audibly. He wonders if she overheard him talking to Hiante and wastes a moment reigning in his spiraling thoughts. “Do you miss it?”

“No, not really,” Astra says. “It’s so wonderful to have new people in my life to love. To see and do new things is a blessing. But I still miss the long nights we spent reading together.”

“Oh, I hadn’t— I should’ve taken you shopping sooner. There’s this bookseller that has—“

“I don’t miss the books,” Astra tittered. If possible her expression got even fonder. It’s not the first time her open affection had sent him mentally reeling, and it likely will not be the last. “Erio, I miss spending nights with you.”

“I’m right here,” Erio says weakly. Beneath the blankets Astra’s foot still rests against Erio’s hip; Erio’s hand hovers briefly before resting against her ankle. “I’ll spend time with you whenever you want, Astra.”

“So will you stay, then?”

When Erio manages to wrench his eyes away from his hand on Astra’s ankle he’s greeted to Astra patting the bed next to her.

“What?” His cheeks begin to heat when Astra just looks at him knowingly.

“Don’t say you can sleep on the chair,” Astra warns. “There’s plenty of room.” She shuffles to the side, encouraging Erio to join her. She moves her leg away and he doesn’t want to think about how he already misses the touch.

“I,” Erio says. He means to say more but none of it seems to be coming out. He settles on gaping at her for a moment. “What?”

Astra rolls her eyes. “If you don’t want to you can just say,” she says gently. “I’d never make you do something you’re uncomfortable with.”

“No, no! It’s—“ Erio fumbles his way to the offered part of the bed. Obligingly Astra pulls the covers up for him to join her. It’s much warmer beneath the covers. With the fires doused the room is getting chilly and Erio is grateful for the warmth even if he feels an embarrassed flush climb his throat. “Is this what you wanted?”

“Yeah,” Astra says. Her chilly toes touch Erio’s leg and he yelps, flushing even more at Astra’s giggle. She’s close enough that their shoulders brush occasionally. Erio can feel her watching him, and studiously pretends to be fascinated by the wallpaper. “Are you sure you’re alright with this?”

“It’s fine,” Erio says. “As long as you’re alright so am I.”

“No, you’re not,” Astra says brightly. It makes Erio’s attention snap back to her and she gives him that same soft smile. “You don’t need to do anything special around me, Erio. You don’t need to act for me.”

Erio tries to swallow back the swell of emotion rising in his throat. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Gently, Astra tilts Erio’s face to hers with a finger. When he meets Astra’s eyes he feels a jolt of fear and anticipation in equal measure. He feels seen through.

“I want you to know I will never be upset if you tell me no,” Astra says. “Do you understand?”

Mutely, Erio nods. His mouth goes dry when he feels her other hand rest on his knee. There’s something that’s supposed to happen next, but his brain has turned to helpless static. He can’t stop looking at her mouth.

“Good,” Astra says. She lets her hand cup Erio’s cheek, and without quite meaning to he leans into it. “Can I kiss you?”

“Um,” Erio manages. His eyes flicker across Astra’s face without really seeing anything. All he can think about is her smile. “Um.”

“You don’t have to say yes,” Astra says. Horribly, her hand starts to draw away.

“No!” Erio grabs her wrist to keep her hand from moving away. Beneath her touch he feels his face flush so warm he’s sure she can feel it. “You can— I want you to kiss me.”

“And you’re not just saying what I want?” Astra’s other hand comes up to Erio’s face and dizzyingly he clutches at her wrists, overwhelmed.

“Astra I have wanted you to kiss me for years,” Erio admits with a little laugh. “But my job is to protect you. That always comes first.”

“No, Erio, it doesn’t,” Astra says. She tilts Erio’s face up to look at her, and he goes, obliging. “Your job is over. Edgar and the Original King are dead. You’re not here as my bodyguard but my cherished friend. You’re welcome to leave as you like... or you can kiss me.”

“Oh,” Erio says. There are half a dozen words of protest that die in his throat when he finally manages to look at her. There in her eyes is a look of such fondness it makes his chest feel tight. “Okay.”

Mustering up all his bravery he reminds himself he’s a demon, he’s powerful and has accomplished incredible things; when he looks into Astra’s loving eyes he knows earning this love is the thing he should be most proud of.

When he kisses her he feels her smile. In all his daydreams he never imagined anything that could compare.

Snowe would be the first to admit he has no idea what is happening.

Something’s happened between Astra and Erio that much is clear. Snowe watches them, bewildered, as they bow their heads together and whisper some secrets to one another. Whatever they talk about seems to always make Erio’s face flush a mottled pink and to make Astra grin ear to ear.

He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t a little jealous. He tries not to be, since the wild euphoria Erio keeps bringing up in Astra is the first time Snowe has seen her happy since they left Sabine. There is a part of him that wishes that he could be involved somehow, but it seems like whenever he looks at the pair of them they scatter like startled mice.

“I’m sorry,” Snowe says one night as him and Astra are preparing dinner.

“What?” Astra frowns. Her face is flushed from the oven, framed by the little flyaways coming out of her ponytail despite how many times she’s retied it. She looks magnificent and Snowe feels perilously unworthy at the sight of her. “Why are you apologizing?”

“I don’t know,” Snowe admits. “I think I must be upsetting you lately. You and Erio have been—“ he stutters to a stop, not wanting it to sound like an accusation. “It seems like I’ve done something wrong.”

There’s a noise of Astra putting the dishes down. When Snowe chances a look she’s frowning at him now, though she doesn’t seem to know what to say at first. “I think it’s me who should apologize.”

“No, no!” Snowe puts the knife he was using to cut vegetables down before he cuts himself. Without it he doesn’t know what to do with his hands. “You’ve looked so much happier, I just don’t want to get in the way—“

“You didn’t do anything wrong, Snowe,” Astra says, and she looks truly upset now. “I’ve been teasing Erio and—listen, it won’t happen anymore, I promise. I swear to it. I never wanted you to feel left out.”

Snowe just gapes for a moment, entirely wrong-footed by the progression of this conversation. “It’s—it’s okay, really—“

“It’s not, though,” Astra says. The plates have been long been forgotten, and Astra sweeps up to Snowe, grabbing his unprotesting hands. His fingers are cold in her warm grasp, and Snowe shivers despite himself. “I should’ve realized how it looked to you. Snowe, you’re one of my dearest friends and no matter what Erio and I want you by our side. You know that, right?”

There’s a glimmer in Astra’s eyes that Snowe doesn’t quite understand, but the grip she has on his hands is tight and comforting and he feels breathless under the weight of Astra’s gaze. “Yeah,” he manages. “Yeah.”

“Good,” she says. She lets go of Snowe leaving him with the aftershock of her touch and takes up the dishes again. “We should hurry up, I’m sure Erio is hungry after such a long day.”

“Of course,” he says, and gives her a smile that makes brightness spark in her eyes. If that’s all he has to do then he’ll do it every day for the rest of his life.

Every night that Erio spends in Astra’s bedroom he expects reprimand. The reality is that hardly anyone has even seemed to notice. If he was in a more sensible state of mind he would’ve realized it wasn’t entirely unheard of for him to spend the night counseling Astra on her nightmares, but he was far away from a sensible state of mind. It felt illicit, it felt fragile. It was so saccharine, spending each clandestine night doing barely anything more than holding hands, but he felt like he would rather die than ruin it by being sloppy.

It was one night that Erio realized that he was worried that _Snowe_ might find out. After suffering through weeks of Astra’s teasing remarks on Erio’s lingering stares this should be ridiculous. Of course Snowe knows. Erio should want him to know. It was just that watching Snowe, in all his well-meaning, bumbling genuineness made emotion well up in Erio’s throat.

“He’s not going to leave any more than I am, you know,” Astra whispers one night. Erio thought she was asleep, but he must have been keeping her up with his brooding. He grumbles discontentedly.

“It’s nothing to worry about,” Erio says. “Just go to sleep.”

“Us being together doesn’t mean Snowe is going to disappear, Erio,” Astra persists. Erio grinds out his irritation in a few jagged consonants.

“How do you know that?”

“Because he’s our friend, and he values us as much as we value him,” she says. Her voice is softened with a huff of a laugh. “Besides, I see the way he looks at you—at the both of us—and I’m not stupid, Erio.”

Erio can’t help but keep grumbling. “Then why don’t you talk to him?”

“Oh, please, as if I haven’t tried,” Astra says, and Erio can practically feel her rolling her eyes. “If I thought it would do anything at all I would keep trying, but Erio, I can’t say words you’ve left unspoken.”

“Snowe isn’t exactly the most _upfront_ person around, you know,” Erio says hotly. He tries to pull away from her but Astra just grips Erio’s arm tighter. He’s not about to wrench away from her, so he stays, tense and unhappy.

“I’m not blaming you. I’m just saying that loving us doesn’t need to be a secret—for Snowe or me.”

“I’ll talk to him, if that’s what you really want,” Erio says. He tries his best to relax and thinks he only moderately succeeds.

“I’m not asking you to,” Astra says, and she entwines her fingers with Erio’s. “I just need you to know how loved you are. And that we know you love us back.”

“Okay,” Erio says. He swallows around the emotion rising within in. “Now go to sleep, please.”

Astra isn’t surprised when Erio announces that he’s going away to visit his family for a while. It’s been years and years where his sister thought he was gone; he’s more than owed a reunion if he wants one. Yet, this is the thing she feared. She expected dread to crawl up from within her, unbidden, but she finds herself mostly relieved.

This is more than the shop; this is planning his life past the events in Sabine. It’s healthy, and his family deserves an explanation. Besides, after everything she knows he’s going to be back.

She knows it with every kiss he gives her, with every glance full of heartrending affection. The other demons in his family share his lifeblood, but Erio’s made a home in the hearts of Astra and Hiante and Snowe.

If only Snowe knew that. When Erio walks away Snowe looks gutted before he can hide the emotion away.

“Are you alright?” Astra tries to put a hand on Snowe’s arm but he shies away. The smile on his face is fake but shines all the same.

“Yeah,” he says.

When Snowe drops something for the third time without noticing the resulting _thunk_ Hiante sighs. He closes the book he’s reading loudly, but even that doesn’t snap Snowe out of his trance.

“Snowe,” Hiante says, and Snowe blinks out of his stupor. He stares uncomprehendingly down at the book in his hands.

“Sorry?”

There are times Hiante is glad he doesn’t have a face. Snowe certainly can’t discern the annoyance emanating from Hiante, and he’s relieved he doesn’t have to try to hide it.

“I don’t think this is very productive,” Hiante says. “You seem a bit distracted.” That would be a massive understatement. Snowe's hardly picked up a pen since they’ve sat down.

“Sorry, sorry!” Snowe shakes himself, looking down at the book with renewed determination. “I’ll focus now, I promise. I said I was going to help and I will.”

“It’s no matter, Snowe,” Hiante says gently. “Perhaps you should get some rest.”

“It’s—no its nothing, really. It’s my fault, I’m sorry, I’ve just been—“ Snowe visibly retracts. “We can keep working.”

“If you would like to speak about it you only need to ask,” Hiante says, but he’s not even finished with his sentence before Snowe’s shaking his head.

“No, no, it’s—“ he stops, giving a nervous laugh. “You must get sick of sorting through everyone’s emotional troubles all the time.”

“Not really,” Hiante says. “Erio and Astra are my family. Besides, I’m dead. I have all the time in the world.”

When Hiante tries to catch his gaze Snowe’s studiously looking at the floor. At one point Snowe might’ve been an outsider to him, an enemy even, but now Hiante only sees him as a lost teenager. A lost teenager that’s spent a lot of time away from home, and a lot of time on his own. He wonders when the last time he spent an evening at home was.

“Why don’t you head home for the night? I’m sure that Richard and Vera would love to spend time with you.”

“Yeah,” Snowe says, barely a whisper. “Maybe I’ll do that.”

Snowe likes to think that he’s good at hiding his emotions, but Richard is in his face nearly as soon as he makes his way through the front door.

“What’s wrong? Has something happened?” Richard touches Snowe’s shoulder and embarrassingly, Snowe bursts into tears. Everything that happened before with his parents and the demon he barely ever cried, but now he can’t seem to stop the hiccupping tears. Richard grapples with him, bewildered, shooting a glance over at Vera who has fumbled her way over in the commotion.

“It’s okay,” Richard says, letting Snowe fold into his arms. “You’re alright. We’re alright. Everyone’s alright.”

By the time that Snowe can speak Richard’s expression has morphed from surprise into deep concern. It’s only the worry lines on his face that make Snowe pull himself together. He knows he’s not going to get out of this without an explanation.

It’s not something he knows how to explain. The enormity of his attachment to Astra and Erio is beyond words. Everything in his life feels connected to them now. He doesn’t know what his world would be like without either of them.

“What will I do if he never comes back?” It comes out entirely without his volition. The look that Richard gives Vera this time is significantly more soft and knowing.

“Did you tell him you want him to come back?” Vera’s voice is so gentle Snowe nearly starts crying again.

“He—of course he knows to come back. He’s got Astra and—he’s—but his _family_ is down there.”

“Oh, Snowe,” Richard says, pulling him in for another hug. “You don’t know how loved you are.”

It’s a kindness the day that Snowe comes to Richard with a problem on relationships and love. It’s a _relief_. No more old magic, no more suffering souls, no more dying. It’s the first day that Richard thinks that Snowe is going to be okay.

He still has the privilege to be comforting arms for Snowe, and it’s a blessing that Snowe is in the safety of two people who will unshakably protect him. Even if he doesn’t realize it yet.

Because he doesn’t realize it yet.

Erio knocks on his sister’s door expecting hellfire. Maybe evisceration. At the very least he was getting an earful.

He knocks on the door and he’s greeted to a gasp, and then the grasp of tight arms.

“Oh, I knew you were safe,” she says, squeezing him so tight that the breath wheezes out of him. She sounds just a bit choked up. “Calling on me and not even bothering to send a letter? A thank you note?”

“Hey, sis,” he says, and she brings him to arm’s length to shake him.

“What took you so long? Didn’t you think I wanted to see you?”

Erio forces a grin that feels more like a grimace. Under this intense affection the cacophony of his mind seems more and more implausible.

“Thought you were going to be mad,” he ekes out, sounding far younger than he is.

“Oh, I am mad,” his sister says, but her face betrays her. It’s soft with affection. “It’s been _years_ Erio. We have so much to catch up on.”

It’s not even sunrise when Erio returns. He opens the door without fanfare like it’s every other day, and it’s only because Astra is sitting in the kitchen that she catches him at all.

“Erio!” She barely catches herself in time to keep her voice at a whisper.

The way he jumps would’ve been hilarious if she weren’t so excited over his return. “Astra. Why are you up?” His eyes narrow. “Are you having nightmares again?”

She sputters a series of excited noises before she yanks Erio into a hug. “It’s so nice to see you.”

“It hasn’t been that long,” Erio says, sheepish. His hands come up to cautiously touch Astra’s back. “Besides, you knew I was coming home.”

“I didn’t, really,” Astra says, pressing a kiss to Erio’s cheek that makes him flush. It’s that contact that emboldens Erio to really hug Astra back. “You hadn’t been home in years. I had no way of knowing if you’d want to stay.”

“I… Of course not,” Erio says. “You didn’t really think that?”

“Oh, no, not really,” Astra says. “But Snowe did.”

The expression of shock on his face makes Astra feel slyly smug. Astra has to bite down a laugh.

“Just wait until Snowe wakes up. He’s going to be so relieved.”

Relieved is not the word that Erio would use to describe Snowe when he first realizes he’s back. He looks as if he’s going to cry. Emotion bubbles up on his face in a quick flash of feeling before he’s visibly fights it back.

“How was your sister?” He speaks with only the barest wobble in his voice. If Erio hadn’t watched the emotions play across his face he would’ve never thought anything was wrong.

“She… was great, Snowe. It was nice to visit,” Erio says carefully. “But it’s nice to be home.”

Snowe nods, swallowing heavily. If Snowe sees Erio’s look of concern he doesn’t note on it, but Erio worries on it for the rest of the night.

“I think,” Astra says laboriously. “This spell should work.”

They’d been trying things all day. All week. Eight hours of day, slaving around textbooks and potions and getting zapped by faulty spells. It’s not the first time Astra’s said that. It’s not the tenth time she’s said it. But every time there’s a catch they have to pursue it with guns blazing.

When it turns out to be just as ineffective as everything else it’s hard not to be disappointed.

Days pass. They flicker in and out of the house, leaving whoever’s there to ineffectually grasp at the latest lead.

Astra grumbles something incoherent, and then, “I’m going to take a walk to clear my head. Do any of you want to come?”

There’s a chorus of discontented mumbling before Hiante speaks up. “I’ll come with you, princess.”

“Thank you,” she says, giving a ghost of a smile that does nothing to change the growing shadows of her face. “Good luck, you two.”

When the door closes behind her Erio and Snowe are still making vague noises of protest from where they’re sprawled out in the maze of books. Erio lifts his face from the book he’s been laying on and the pages stick to his cheek, damp. Snowe stirs restlessly from his position on the floor.

“Guess we should get working again,” Erio says, to a sound of discontent from Snowe.

“Gimme a minute,” Snowe says, making no motion to rise.

“I think we’ve had plenty of minutes,” Erio says. “I’m surprised Astra didn’t wake us up earlier.”

“Mhh,” Snowe says, but after a moment he rises obligingly. It doesn’t seem to do much for his energy levels, though. The look he levels on Erio is one of sleepy discontent. Erio has to bite down a grin.

“Right,” Erio says, tossing Snowe a book to watch him fumble. “We have work to catch up on.”

As seemed to be the trend, time stopped its normal trek as they worked. There’s no way of knowing how much time it took for Snowe to shake himself fully awake, for him to become immersed in their work, for Erio and Snowe to be once again stationed so close to each other their shoulders touched.

It had been some indeterminate amount of time before Erio’s gently correcting Snowe’s spellwork, tugging Snowe’s wrist away and scrubbing out the incorrect runes.

“No, no,” Erio says, softly, in the absence of time. “Like this.”

It had been days, weeks, of tiresome, grueling work. Eventually, Snowe isn’t watching Erio’s careful hand guide him through spell corrections. He’s watching him.

And eventually, Erio watches back.

There’s no way of knowing how long it had been, but when Erio catches Snowe’s eye time stops. It holds. It’s the kiss that breaks it.

Astra hasn’t even turned the doorknob all the way before she hears a cacophony of crashing and swearing. There’s a noise that sounds like all their books and research materials clattering to the ground, and then a tenuous silence. Astra takes advantage of it by finally pushing the door open.

The scene she’s greeted with is something that she can’t make any sense of. Erio’s on the ground visibly stunned and Snowe bumbles about flustered, before he pushes past her with a burst of apologies. They’re both flushed scarlet to the ears.

Mutely, she stares at Erio, the only perpetrator left after Snowe’s hasty retreat. He doesn’t offer any explanation.

“Did,” Astra asks haltingly, “Did you find out anything?”

“Of a kind,” Erio says, strangled. He’s looking past Astra’s shoulder to where Snowe fled.

Astra glances at Hinate who looks as if he’s trying hard not to say anything. Realizations form in her head. She tries not to grin.

“Oh,” she says, and Erio buries his face in his hands.

“They’re going to break up because of me,” Snowe says, doing the same dizzying circuit around the kitchen as he had the last seventeen times he said that. “I’ve been making things tense when they’re finally happy and I—“

“Snowe,” Richard says, but it does nothing to stop the flow of Snowe’s anxiety.

“—it’s not worth it! I should go apologize and maybe they’ll forgive me if I’m honest—“

“Well, you’re probably right about that,” Richard says. It’s what finally makes Snowe’s attention snap to him. After all this time of Richard trying to talk him down he hadn’t ever agreed with him.

“I—what?”

“You need to be honest with them. You need to tell them how you feel.” Richard cuts Snowe off before he can start in again. “And not just apologizing. You have feelings other than feeling sorry.”

Snowe’s face screws up. “That’s—that’s what got me in trouble in the first place. They don’t need more of that, they need—“

“Snowe, you don’t know what they need. You don’t know what they want. You need to ask.” Richard’s face softens. “I know it’s hard, but they’re your friends Snowe.”

“Which—which is why I don’t want to lose them,” Snowe manages.

“Oh, Snowe,” Richard says, tugging Snowe in for a hug. “Have some trust in them. You’ve chosen wonderful people to love.”

Normally, he would be embarrassed going on about his romantic problems to Richard, but in the grasp of his arms he found he didn’t mind much.

Snowe goes back to the house like a man walking to his execution. He thinks he knows what he’s going to say but it keeps getting mixed up in his head. He needs to tell Astra he doesn’t want to get in between her and Erio—and that he cares for them both deeply, that’s important—and that he wants to do what’s best for them….

When he opens the door Astra and Erio are already inside, as if they’re waiting for him. He would’ve suspected they were if it weren’t for the surprised delight blooming on Astra’s face.

“Snowe!” Astra’s sweeping Snowe up in a hug before he can get a single word in. “I’m so glad to see you!”

“Uh?” Snowe manages to eke out from her crushing grip. He’s expecting Erio to avoid his eyes, or at the very least look as awkward as Snowe feels, but the expression on his face is nothing but fond.

“It’s such a relief that you figured things out,” Astra says after she released Snowe. The way Astra tilts Snowe’s face up to look at her directly makes him flush to his ears. “I thought it was going to take forever!”

“W-uh—what?” Snowe can feel the embarrassed flush like it’s burning him alive. “You’re not… mad?”

“Hah!” Astra’s grin is threatening to be contagious. “Let me ask you a question. Can I kiss you?”

Snowe’s mouth drops open a bit. Even Erio snickering doesn’t make him snap back to himself. His mind reels like an empty tape. Now he really doesn’t know what’s going on. “Sure,” he manages weakly.

Astra’s lips press warm and soft against Snowe’s. He feels her start to smile even as his knees go weak. This is not how he imagined this conversation to go.

When he manages to open his eyes again Astra’s clutching him in a comfortable embrace and Erio’s at their side.

“You’re okay with this, then?” Erio asks, nearly in a whisper. “The three of us? Like this?”

“That is,” Snowe says, trying not to admit how badly he foresaw this going before. “Everything I wanted and more.”

“Great,” Astra says, and then Snowe realizes that all other words can wait until later.

“I think I’ve got it,” Erio says and smacks Snowe when he emits a resulting groan. “No, shut up, for real this time.”

“It’s always _for real_ ,” Snowe says, but he pulls himself from where he’s cocooned himself in open books and parchment.

“Let me see,” Astra says, sticking an arm out from her own workstation. Erio plops the open book into Astra’s hand.

“Fourth paragraph,” Erio says, rubbing his face now that his hands are free. “I think that… I think it’ll work.”

Astra looks over the edge of the book slowly. “Amplified power through family bonds… Erio, none of us are family.”

“Eh,” Erio says, waving a hand dismissively. Despite his efforts the beginnings of a blush are not so easily hidden. “It’s close enough. After everything else we’ve tried we might as well.”

Astra puts a hand to her chest. “Aw,” she says, and that makes Erio’s blush worse.

“Shut up!”

Snowe titters from his place on the floor and Erio grumbles something about finding Hiante before disappearing.

“Hiante is going to lose it if a spell powered by love works,” Astra says, looking down at Snowe. "Between the two of them they’re never going to let it go. There will be _tears_.”

Snowe laughs. “I can only hope.”

There aren’t any tears but Astra doesn’t have a single iota of disappointment in her once she sees Hiante. It’s him fully, with his square jaw and blunt nose and hair—his hair!

“You’re a brunette!” In her excitement Astra nearly tumbles Hiante straight to the ground in a hug, but he catches her with an _oof_.

“Ye—es” he wheezes out, laughing. Something about his voice is ever so different, fuller, deeper almost. It’s as if the sound echoes in his chest before escaping. “Were you hoping I was blonde?”

Astra just lets out a giggle, clutching Hiante close. “Hiante! We did it!”

“I know, princess,” he says, the grin loud in his voice like it’s never been before.

“I can’t believe it worked,” Erio whispers, but he’s grinning too. He’s been hovering on the edge of Hiante and Astra’s embrace, unsure, so she hauls him in as well.

“Come here, Snowe, you helped too!”

Erio and Snowe dig up every delicacy they can find for Hiante, and Vera even drops off a pie that has Hiante demanding seconds.

It takes hours for them to tire, even after the weeks of grueling work. But as the late hours crawl on the four of them end up sprawled on the couch, dazed with food and euphoria. “Thank you, princess,” is the last thing she hears before Astra falls into sleep.

Hiante meant it when he said he never expected another life. To see the people he loves so happy is a magnificent privilege he never thought he could afford.

He could celebrate regaining his ability to taste, or to feel the warmth of the fire, or the embrace of sleep. It’s enormous, life changing even, but it would never have been the same without any of them.

It’s a strange sensation to fight sleep after years of not having to try, but he tries to savor it. He thinks of standing on that boat, sailing away from Sabine and wondering whether any of them would ever patch their lives together again. Where would they go, after everything?

Well. There’s that little saying about home and the heart, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> As always, my tumblr is Unuora.


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